Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to plate material processing systems that load and unload plate materials, and perform processing, such as a punching process, on the plate materials.
Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in plate material processing systems, plate materials are loaded into and unloaded from plate material processing machines such as punch presses by orthogonal coordinate type loaders (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The orthogonal coordinate type loader moves a plate material attaching unit having the plate material attached thereto, forward, backward, leftward, or rightward, whereby the plate material is moved among an unprocessed plate material loading position in the plate material processing machine, an unprocessed plate material waiting position located lateral to the plate material processing machine, and a produced plate material unloading position located lateral to the plate material processing machine, thereby loading and unloading the plate material. For example, in the case of a loader (plate material transportation device) described in Patent Document 1, a movable base member, that is elongated in the leftward-rightward direction, is mounted on a stationary base member so as to be movable forward and backward, and a travelling member is mounted so as to be able to advance and retreat along the movable base member, and a plate material attaching unit is mounted to the traveling unit. The movable base member is moved forward and backward relative to the stationary base member, and the traveling unit is moved leftward and rightward relative to the movable base member, to move the plate material attaching unit, forward, backward, leftward, and rightward.
As loaders different from the orthogonal coordinate type loaders, pivoting loaders are known (for example, Patent Document 2). In the pivoting loader, a pivoting arm is disposed so as to be pivotable about a pivot shaft along the vertical direction, and a plate material attaching unit is mounted at the tip end of the pivoting arm. An unprocessed plate material loading position, an unprocessed plate material waiting position, and a produced plate material unloading position are along a pivoting trajectory of the plate material attaching unit. In the case of the pivoting loader, the plate material attaching unit having the plate material attached thereto is pivoted to load and unload the plate material.